Recommendations on Preparing for the Part “Writing” of the Unified State Exam in English (Case Study of Irkutsk Region)
Author(s)
Vitaliya V. Kalinina, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Asian-Pacific Rim Regional Studies, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4106-7319, Irkutsk State University
1, K. Marx St, Irkutsk, Russia, 664003, tel.: +7 (3952) 240700, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Natalia G. Sivtseva, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor of the Department of Humanities, https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-0345-6682, Baikal School of BRICS, Irkutsk National Research Technical University
83, Lermontov St, Irkutsk, Russia, 664074, tel.: +7 (3952) 405000, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Abstract.
Introduction. The paper deals with forming the strategies of preparing school students for the written part of the Unified State Exam in English. Shifting to the current Federal State Educational Standard of secondary education leads to developing a new approach to teaching writing in a foreign language that involves informatization and implementation of project activity. The purpose of the article is to give practical recommendations based on the analysis of typical mistakes made in the English exam in 2022 in Irkutsk region to help teachers prepare students for the exam in this subject.
Materials and Methods. The study was carried out on the basis of statistical data on the results of the Unified State Exam in English in 2022 in Irkutsk region. Using the analysis method, the authors identified typical mistakes of the examinees and formulated recommendations for the successful preparation of graduates. Results. The study shows that most of the graduates of 2022 successfully completed the basic level task of the new format (84.2% - “Communicative task” criterion, 92.8% - “Organization of the text” criterion). The lexico-grammatical aspect of the text was the only one that presented difficulties (46.3%). The participants with the low or medium levels of English made mistakes related to misunderstanding of the communicative task due to vocabulary issues. The high level task was successfully accomplished by the graduates with the high and above average levels of language proficiency (69.1%).
Discussion and Conclusion. To complete the written tasks 39 and 40 successfully, it is necessary to use systematic, consistent sets of exercises, which are designed on the basis of “from simple to complex” principle. A set of exercises aimed at preparing students for writing an electronic personal letter should contain exercises to train the skills of structuring a personal letter, taking etiquette phrases that correspond to the declared style and using correct linguistic means to express thoughts. A set of exercises to prepare students for task 40 is more complex and contains exercises for drilling advanced grammatical and syntactic structures, academic vocabulary, for training the skills of competent writing of the introductory part, reasoned identification of the problem and determining ways to solve it, as well as for developing the ability to express thoughts logically and coherently within the context of required style. These sets can be used for individual and group work, for selfchecking and mutual checking techniques. The sets of exercises recommended by the authors were tested at the courses for preparing pupils for the Unified State Examination in English at the Irkutsk National Research Technical University and showed their effectiveness. The main differentiating feature of the discussed sets is an effective transition from the grammar translation to the communicative-cognitive approach in teaching.
Keywords: Unified State Exam (EGE), the English language, part “Writing”, typical mistakes, evaluation criteria, effective teaching methods
For citation: Kalinina V. V., Sivtseva N. G. Recommendations on Preparing for the Part “Writing” of the Unified State Exam in English (Case Study of Irkutsk Region). Pedagogicheskiy IMIDZH = Pedagogical IMAGE. 2023; 17 (1): 25-39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32343/2409-5052-2023-17-1-25-39
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32343/2409-5052-2023-17-1-25-39
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